Mobile users can access the content by downloading or updating the Papa John's app, which will install the content in their Giphy sticker packs for use on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram. The stickers include animations of O'Neal dunking a Papadia in sauce and phrases like "Let's Eat!" that mobile users can use to decorate their messages.

Insight:

Papa John's is rolling out fresh digital content to engage tech-savvy younger audiences that are a key target for its advertising. Giphy, which last week was acquired by Facebook for about $400 million, has a user base of 65 million people, while Snapchat has 229 million daily active users (DAUs), including 88 million in North America. With millions of people confined to their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, Papa John's can reach those audiences as they use their mobile devices to stay connected to the outside world.

Its latest promotion follows past marketing efforts that also enlisted Snapchat. The pizza chain this year returned to the photo-messaging app for a Valentine's Day promotion to highlight its heart-shaped pizza. The campaign followed positive results from a year prior, when Papa John's reported that more than 25% of Snapchat users who swiped up on the Papa John's AR lens ordered a Valentine's Day pizza, a strong response rate for a call-to-action on social media. The campaign also led to a 6% lift in ad awareness among Papa John's customers, per the company.

Now, the promotion for the new Papadia sandwich follows a month that the pizza chain claims was the best in company history. Comparable same-store sales jumped 27% in April from a year earlier in North America, CEO Rob Lynch told CNBC, saying that 10% of the growth could be attributed to customers who were stuck at home during the pandemic. The remainder of the growth was attributable to other factors, such as its upgraded loyalty program that signed up 1 million new customers.